Three Products = One Great Solution
Root Injections for Citrus Help Boost Tree Health, Yield

February 2017

Growth Products’ new Citrus Injection Program is showing impressive results, giving citrus growers remarkably high yields per acre. What is the Citrus Injection Program, and why is it needed?

Citrus canopy stunting and die-back, and rapidly declining yields, are the most visible signs of huanglongbing (HLB) disease. Just as bad, although not so obvious at a quick glance, is greening’s aggressive assault on roots.

Growth Products’ Low Volume Foliar Spray Program1 was created when HLB was still relatively new to the U.S. With its targeted foliar feeding and carefully selected ingredients, the program allows infected citrus trees to receive essential macro- and micro-nutrients through their leaves, and to continue producing fruit even as the normal translocation of nutrients from the roots to the canopy was disrupted. The program has, and will continue to be, a life-line for citrus growers.

A New Focus on Roots

In “Root health in the age of HLB” (Citrus Industry, August 2015), authors Evan Johnson and Jim Graham discuss the stages of root destruction in HLB-infected trees. Before foliar damage is even obvious, infected trees often lose 30% to 50% of their fibrous root density. As the infection spreads and the canopy declines, root loss can quickly decline to 80% of normal levels.

When roots are in such bad shape, there can little if any nutrient transport via a tree’s vascular system. While citrus growers have focused on the canopy, roots need special care as well.

The Citrus Root Injection Program consists of three products combined into a simple program designed to improve root health, increase citrus yield, improve fruit quality, and extend the lifespan of infected trees.

Growth Products Citrus
Root Injection Program

PRODUCTS

RATES PER ACRE

APPLICATION / INJECTION TIMING

COMMENTS

"TKO" Phosphite 0-29-26

1 to 2 gallons

3 applications per year: late March or early April; June; and
early August

The March or April and the early August injections can be
tank-mixed for convenience

BioNutrients Soluble AG 8-1-9

1 to 2 lbs.

2 applications per year: March or April, and early August

MicroTech Inject 7-0-0

2 to 3 gallons

3 applications per year: late March or early April; June; and
early August

Typically injected one to
two weeks after "TKO" injection.

The first injection combines “TKO” Phosphite 0-29-26 and BioNutrients Soluble AG 8-1-9. This combination provides optimal amounts of phosphorous and potassium in forms that are rapidly absorbed even by damaged roots, and it conditions and inoculates the rhizosphere with natural wetting agents and five plant growth-promoting species bacillus.

The second injection, which is applied a week or two after the “TKO”/ BioNutrients injection, puts Growth Products’ newest formula – MicroTech Inject 7-0-0 – directly into the damaged root zone.

MicroTech Inject was “custom built” for citrus root systems that have been damaged by greening. Its five micronutrients — Magnesium (Mg), Sulfur (S), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), and Zinc(Zn) —are the specific elements that are typically deficient in the root systems of trees infected with HLB. MicroTech Inject’s nitrogen is 6% Nitrate, which is the form of nitrogen to which HLB damaged root systems respond best. Nitrate allows for faster and more efficient N uptake by roots than any other form of nitrogen. While Nitrate is not often recommended for trees in good health, in this case it is “just what the doctor ordered.”